Category Archives: Thoughts

Speak Life

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Last night I was once again reminded of the power of our words – that they either have the power to produce life or the power to produce death.

During my daughter’s soccer practice one of my son’s happened to get engaged in a conversation with one of the players grandmother.  She was a sweet lady who had my son going with the words that she used.  She was building him up with words like, “there’s nothing you will not be able to do, you are going to run in the Olympics, you are an engineer, you will be someone who creates paths for others to follow, you are brilliant and a leader.”  By the time we left that practice field, I’m sure he was convinced that anything was possible.

Proverbs 18:21 says that death and life are in the power of the tongue.  It’s amazing the affect our words have on people when we build them up with positive affirmation.  In a world where tearing down with words seems to be the norm – I believe that we can choose to be different.  Like this grandma, we can choose to build and inspire with our words…even when we are pushed :) .

Do you find yourself struggling to get a grasp of how you talk to others?  Do you want to build and not be destructive in how you talk?  Be encouraged, you can!  Begin by asking Jesus to change your heart.  And then put to practice the art of being purposeful in what you say by using words that release life and build people.  Looking for a great place to start?  Start at home with the people you are closest to and watch the difference it will make not only in your life, but in the lives of others.

Adversity and Strength

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“If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small.”  Proverbs 24:10

The writer of this great proverb recognizes the importance of strength when it comes to overcoming adversity.  Adversity is woven into our system of life.  Whether it is the adversity that we experience from within in the form of fear, the adversity we experience in surrounding circumstances, or the adversity we encounter from others – there is no getting away from the reality of adversity.  It is the thorns and thistles of life.  It is the resistance that we all experience in our movement toward what we are becoming.  Once we get an idea in our mind of what Jesus wants to do with our life and we begin making movement toward that picture – we will encounter adversity.  There will be things in our journey that will attempt to know us off track, that will attempt to keep us from moving forward trusting what God has promised and purposed for our lives.  The key to overcoming adversity has to do with our inner strength.  External strengths like education and experience will only take us so far.  The consistent fight to overcome adversity comes from within.  It comes in understanding who we are and who we are not.  It comes in developing the right life perspective.  It comes in having our minds renewed by the washing of the water of the Word of God.  It comes in developing an ear to hear the voice of God and in following His lead.  To faint in the day of adversity is to miss the importance of relationship and the part that relationship plays in our inner lives.  Regardless of the adversity, we will find the strength that we need to overcome through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in us.

Do you find yourself in a place of great adversity?  What you do and where you turn will say a lot about what you believe.  As you strengthen the inner man through relationship with Christ you will overcome and rise above the adversities of life to realize and seize the promises of God!

Twitter: What are you doing?

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Thanks to Twitter, it’s possible to share short, bite-sized updates about your life
and follow the updates of people that matter to you via the web. Find out what
your friends are doing at Twitter.com. Watch the video to the right for a full
explanation of how twitter can connect all of us.
 
You can follow your updates of friends and family in a number of ways.  They
can be sent to your phone, desktop and or mobile device. It is a quick and
effective way to get information out.
 
Consider that your little infomercial.  Now for the practical aspect of how this
can help take us as a church to the next level in our communication and
technology.  You might be thinking what’s the point, who cares?  The point is
this – it is a great way to communicate and mobilize.  Let’s just say that we
wanted to mobilize a large number of people quickly to give an hour on a
project.  With a simple stroke of a few keys you will have gotten word out to
everyone following you.  Wow!  What a great tool.  This is just one of the many
ways in which Twitter can be used.  Or let’s say that a huge snow storm blew
in and we had to cancel service.  This would be a quick and effective way to
communicate that.
 
I am going to encourage everyone in our church to sign up today – even my wife!
 
Click here to sign up and follow.

Obedience and Parenting

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Which is more important to you as a parent, obedience or relationship?  Not that it has to be a case of either/or – but our answer to this question will say a lot about our parenting style and what we perceive our role as parents to be.  Is our intended end to produce children who easily comply and do everything that we want them to or is our intended end to train our children in the way that they should go (Proverbs 22:6).  If we want compliant children it doesn’t take a whole lot of work.  We can just tell them what we want them to be and do and then expect them to do it based on the rules and parameters that we have set up for them.

What happens though when they fail or are unable to live up to what we have set up for them?

If we want something more, like training our children to think, to act, and to respond to life from the right heart attitudes, it takes a lot of work.  It takes working at the relationship and putting ourselves in the place to allow them the freedoms they need to learn while remaining in the same place of our homes.  For this to happen though, we as parents have to be willing to let go more while working with our children to help them develop the right heart motivations.

I want my children to obey, not because they have to, but because they want to – because they want to honor and respect mom and dad and others in authority.  For this to happen though it takes work and time – it takes building a relationship.  It takes allowing greater freedoms while enforcing fewer rules.  When done right…a person doesn’t need a lot of limitations to make right decisions – they just need a lot of love.  May we cultivate these kinds of environments with our children.  They are worth it!

Hope is Not a Strategy

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A pastor friend of mine said something once that has stuck with me every since.  He said, “hope is not a strategy.”  There have been plenty of times in my life where I just hoped that the situation, the relationship, the whatever would get better and guess what – they usually don’t.  That is, without a plan.

Maybe you find yourself in a situation hoping that a relationship you have with someone will get better.  Among your many possibilities; you could do nothing and hope that things will get better or you could come up with a plan and begin to work the plan.  The problem with getting a plan and working the plan is that it requires work.  Work, now there is a word that we sometimes shy away from because it requires thought and intention. If I am frustrated over my financial situation, but never give thought and intention to improving my budget and financial outlook, then I am in no place to see my situation improve.  I can will it to improve and never see a change.  I can hope that it improves or I can put a plan in place to begin movement in the right direction.  As we all find out in life, as much as we sometimes would like to throw the life switch in autopilot and kind of cruise our way through it, without intentionality we will not get to the place that God is leading us – we will not get to the place we want to go.

We may see the need to change.  We may even talk about change.  But are we willing to do the work to change?

America and Judgment

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There is an email circulating from a fairly well known pastor who is talking of coming judgment upon America.  Recently, I was asked to share my thoughts concerning this email.  Below you will find my response with a few added sentences at the end.

Click here to read his message.

I guess at this point I am still navigating through where I see myself concerning some of the things that he (this pastor) has come out and said.  While I don’t completely want to dismiss the potential for such devastation – at the same time I am not quick to jump on the band wagon that some of these things will happen or are happening as a result of God’s judgment on America.  America is not perfect and has never been perfect.  Even in our supposed Christian beginnings we fled from the religious strong hold of England and came to the New Englands to establish a religious ideal of freedom and then in our freedom drove the Indians off their land in bloodshed.  I say that to say that I don’t know that we as a nation have ever gotten it right.  When does God say enough is enough?  We have Biblical signs.  On a global scale they are all around us.

Aren’t you thankful for the mercy and kindness of God?  What about His patience?  Because of these attributes we are given the opportunity to know Him and to make Him known.  These are exciting times, where opportunities abound to be salt and light.  This is definitely not a time to be neglecting matters of the kingdom or to be surprised with no oil in our lamps Matthew 25:1-13.

On a practical side, I do think though that it is a good idea to be prepared in the case of a local or national crisis.  I am not there yet, but see the necessity.

I am interested in hearing your ideas.  Your comments are welcome and thanks for being part of this conversation.

Are You Listening?

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God is speaking, are you listening?

Without intentionality, because of the pace and nature of our culture, it’s easy to get lost in ourselves, preoccupied with our ambition, drive and pursuits.  Often it’s in this place, that the voice of God gets drowned out because His voice is not always the loudest or the most demanding.  This doesn’t diminish the reality though that God is speaking and that He wants to speak to us.

This thought of course brings into the light an interesting dilemma.   If God is speaking, why do I feel like I have trouble hearing?  And if God is speaking, how do I recognize His voice in the midst of all the other voices fighting for my attention and affection.  While the answer to both of these questions can be a bit complex, both of them find their answer rooted in relationship.  Just as I learn to know and recognize the voice of my children through interaction in relationship, this is the same way I learn to know and recognize the voice of the God.  I develop sensitivity to His speaking through my interaction with Him through relationship.

When I engage myself in what has been written in the Bible, I am interacting with the written words of God.  God speaks through scripture.  Through scripture I learn to know the character and nature of God’s person.  I learn what He likes and dislikes.  I learn what He responds to and what hurts Him.  Through my interaction with the written Word (Jesus – John 1:1) I come to know the voice of God.  Through relationship His words find expression in what I give myself to, in how I live, and in how I interact with others.

Therefore it takes intentionality on our behalf to be aware of what it occupying our minds and hearts.  This may have a lot to do with what we are and are not hearing from God.  Do you want to hear from God for your life?  Considering slowing down and making the shift from my pursuits to His pursuits.  And then maybe the quiet still voice of the Holy Spirit will be able to be heard in our lives.  Even though His voice may not be the loudest and most demanding – it is the most persistent.  He pursues us that He might have a relationship with us.

A Loaded Question

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A friend of mine recently asked me a loaded question that I would like to share with you and my response to his question.  The question was this.

“If you were giving council to a young married couple with children about being a good steward with their finances and being responsible with their family and life, what order would you put these items in?  Things such as food, clothing, utilities, shelter, gas, medical, charitable giving, savings account, life insurance, retirement, college funds, etc.”

Below I have posted my response to this question.  Whether we are conscious or intentional at times in our thinking regarding certain decisions that we make, our priorities are determined by our values.  The shaping of values then determine what we place priority on.

If I were to give counsel to a young couple this is what I would tell them.  I would tell them that our doing is derived out of our being.  For in Christ we are to live and move and have our being.  Our doing is to flow out of our being.  Our priorities and the values that we place on them, flow out of relationship “our being.”  For example, my values may be shaped in this way.  Christ, family, work, and then other relationships.  Once I determine my values, I place priority on them.  What belongs to Jesus, since I place value on seeking and putting Him first, the first 10% goes to Him.  From there, food, shelter, utilities, gas, life insurance, missions giving and offerings, savings account, and retirement.  My wife and I have decided that each of our children will need to pay for college themselves through scholarships and what not.  It is our determined values that shape the outflow of our priorities.

What about you, have you taken the time to think about how your values are shaping and determining your priorities?  It’s a good thing to give some thought and consideration to!  Give it a try and let me know what you come up with.

A Simple Pleasure

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Have you ever played I Spy?  In a stretch between Albany and Eugene, which is about 45 miles, my wife and I must have seen about 15 hawks along I-5.  For a guy that loves spying hawks, it was amazing.  This is definitely one of those simple pleasures in life that I thank God for.

What is a simple pleasure in your life that you get excited about?  Do you have one?  If not, I recommend discovering one.  Especially on longer trips it adds some excitement…as if a Suburban full of amazing kids isn’t enough!

Good Question

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Here is a question that I have been wrestling some over.

Do all people become followers of Christ out of need?

I find this question interesting because I know people who are “good” people.  In other words they do a lot of things right.  They make right decisions with their life.  They are people of integrity.  They love and care for others.  They don’t talk bad about others.  They make it a point to live healthy productive lives.  With logic and strong reason, a person could live a pretty good life.  A person might even look at the fruit of their lives and draw a comparison with someone who is a Christ follower.

When confronted with the gospel – what is the buy in if you will for the “good” person?  Let’s just say, they don’t see a need.  Most probably don’t.  After all, they are doing just fine on their own.

Knowing that the Holy Spirit is the One who reveals Jesus, is it possible to follow Jesus out of logic and reason and not just out of need?  Or will a “good” person only become a follower of Christ when he sees his need?

Thoughts?